This underbirded migrant hotspot was Lake County’s first forest preserve, created in 1961, and features three miles of easy-walking dirt and grass trails along oak forest and wetlands. We’ll be looking for the first wave of landbird migrants – potentially arriving earlier than usual due to climate change.

With two leaders, this trip offers two choices. Either walk the whole three-mile loop out and back with one leader or take a shorter one-mile-out-one-mile-back route with the other. The shorter route will take about two hours.

As always, this trip is open to both beginners and experienced birders.

Directions: From US 41 North, turn east on Rte. 173. Drive 0.1 miles and turn left (north) into the preserve. Park in the first parking lot on your right.

Leaders: Wanda Supanich 224-433-1675 and Susan Lamberts

Please register for the Van Patten Woods field trip here so that we can get a head count and contact you in the event of a date change due to weather conditions.

Pack a picnic dinner and join us for a 5 pm bird walk at the height of spring migration in one of the birdiest forest preserves in Lake County. Daniel Wright Woods and Half Day Forest Preserve are linked by a footbridge over the Des Plaines River, providing crucial habitat for songbirds that utilize the river as a rest stop on their migratory journeys and often yielding over 20 species of warblers on a good day. We’ll bird first, then gather at the picnic tables near the Wright Woods parking lot to eat and socialize.

Directions: From Waukegan Rd., turn west on Everett Rd. in Lake Forest, drive to the end (St. Mary’s Rd), and turn left (south) into the parking lot. Meet in the parking lot at Everett and St. Mary’s Roads.

Leader: Todd Katz 847-409-7355

Please register for the Daniel Wright Woods bird walk and picnic here so that we can get a head count and contact you in the event of a date change due to weather conditions.

Birders at Lake County’s largest forest preserve have reported 229 species here, thanks to habitat that includes a mixture of oak woods, wetlands and fields. The first-ever state record of Painted Redstart was reported here in 2023, drawing scores of birders from around the state to see this stunning black and red warbler far from its home in the southwestern U.S.

Directions: From westbound Route 176, turn left (south) onto Fairfield Road. Within a 1/4 mile turn right (southwest) onto W. Ivanhoe Road. Do NOT turn left into the Lakewood Forest Preserve parking lot. Continue southwest on Ivanhoe Road about 1/4 mile to the first road on your left (past big white house on corner). This road is gravel and unnamed. Drive down this road to a small parking lot and public toilets. (Map)

Leader: Donna Kenski 847-347-3474

Please register for the Lakewood Forest Preserve field trip here so that we can get a head count and contact you in the event of a date change due to weather conditions.

In addition to being one of Lake County’s birdiest forest preserves during migration, Daniel Wright has become a reliable spot for Pileated Woodpecker – a species that was largely absent from the county just a decade ago. Daniel Wright Woods and Half Day Forest Preserve are linked by a footbridge over the Des Plaines River, providing crucial habitat for songbirds that utilize the river as a rest stop on their migratory journeys and often yielding over 20 species of warblers on a good day.

Directions: From Waukegan Rd., turn west on Everett Rd. in Lake Forest, drive to the end (St. Mary’s Rd), and turn left (south) into the parking lot. Meet in the parking lot at Everett and St. Mary’s Roads.

Leaders: Charlotte Pavelka and Doug Reitz 847-347-8416

Please register for the Daniel Wright Woods field trip here so that we can get a head count and contact you in the event of a date change due to weather conditions.

Come bird with us on Memorial Day morning! With woodland, savanna and wetland habitats, Sedge Meadow is a great place for birders to look for lingering warblers, flycatchers, vireos and other spring migrants (one previous chapter walk here yielded a Brewster’s Warbler, a hybrid Blue-winged and Golden-winged Warbler that is rarely reported in the Chicago area) as well as resident species.

Directions: The preserve is located on Wadsworth Rd., just east of US 41. Meet at the Sedge Meadow entrance, which is the first parking lot east of US 41 (NOT the canoe launch lot).

Leaders: Charlotte Pavelka and Doug Reitz 847-347-8416

Please register for the Sedge Meadow field trip here so that we can get a head count and contact you in the event of a date change due to weather conditions.

Catch the end of spring migration and the beginning of nesting season at Lake County’s best spot for grassland and marsh birds, including Bobolink, Henslow’s Sparrow, Eastern Meadowlark and sometimes Dickcissel. With 1,216 uninterrupted acres, the habitat includes prairie, wetland and an oak grove that plays host to passerines. Rollins is also one of the few places in the county to find Trumpeter Swans, which have nested here for several years.

Bring a spotting scope to scan the large wetland if you have one.

Directions: Meet at the Drury Lane parking lot on the north side of the preserve. From I-94, exit Grand Ave. west to Rollins Rd., then turn left (west) on Rollins and south on Drury Lane Drive .3 mile to the parking lot on left.

Leader: Beau Schaefer 847-337-3602

Please register for the Rollins Savanna field trip here so that we can get a head count and contact you in the event of a date change due to weather conditions.